Refrigeration apparatus



y 1945- o. H. YOXSIMER REFRIGERATION APPARATUS Filed Feb. 5, 1943 31 INVENTOR 2a ORLAND H.YO SI.ME.R.

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Patented May 15, 1945 ITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,375,880 REFRIGERATION APPARATUS Orland H. Yoxsimer, Mansfield, Ohio, assignor to Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Com- Dany, East Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Application February 5, 1943, Serial No. 474,763

- ous cabinets.

It is still another object of my invention to render the contents of the food storage compartment of a refrigerator cabinet more accessible to the user. I

It is a further object of my invention to provide improved refrigerator cabinet construction which is inexpensive and pleasing in appearance.

"It is still a further object of my invention to provide a refrigerator cabinet breaker strip of novel and useful configuration and to design the door of the refrigerator cabinet in such a manner that it cooperates with the breaker strip to reduce the heat leakage between the food storage compartment and the ambient atmosphere.

These and other objects are efiected by my invention as will be apparent from the following description and claim taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this application, in which:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a refrigerator cabinet embodying my invention; a Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the refrigerator cabinet taken on line II-II of Fig, 1, with the door in the closed position; and v Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the springs used to hold the cabinet breaker strips in place.

Referring specifically to the drawing for a detailed description of the invention, numeral designates generally a refrigerator cabinet having an access opening II to a food storage compartment I2. The access opening is closed by a door l3. A cooling element It cools the air in the food storage compartment l2 to provide refrigeration for foods stored therein.

As shown best in Fig. 2, the body of the refrigerator cabinet comprises spaced inner and outer shells l5 and I 6, respectively, with heat insulation I! therebetween. The inner shell I5 is flanged at l8 toward the outer shell l6 peripherally of the access opening I I, The outer shell It is provided with a double bent portion pe- 1 Claim. (01. 220-9) ripherally. of the access opening which forms a groove or pocket I3 and two flanges 2| and 22 extending toward the flange l8 of the inner shell l5 A heat breaker strip 23 bridges the. space between the shells l5 and I 6 peripherally of'the access opening and is preferably formed of a relatively rigid nonmetallic plastic material or of stainless steel. The breaker strip 23 has a portion 24 extending in a direction forwardly of the flanges 2| and 22 on the outer shell l3 and also has a portion 25 substantially at right angles to the portion 24 of the breaker strip.

This results in an outwardly bulged breaker strip so that shelves 26 in the food storage compartment Il may be extended forwardly further than in the usual flat breaker strip refrigerator such as shown in Yoxsimer Patent No. 2,213,155. Portion 25 of the breaker strip 23 is preferably provided with a groove 21 which hooks over the flange l8 on inner shell l5 to retain the edge of the breaker strip adjacent the inner shell in position. The other edge of the breaker strip extends into the pocket 19 in the outer shell and is preferably biased toward the inner shell l5 and toward the inner surface of flange 22 on the outer shell l8 by a plurality of springs 28 inserted in the pocket 49. The springs 28 are provided with a bent leg 29 and a bent top 3| for biasing the breaker strip toward the flange 22 and toward the inner shell l5, respectively. Four breaker strips are provided, one for each side of the rectangular access opening II, and the meeting edgesof the four strips are covered by ornamental corner clips 32.

The door I3 is formed of an outer shell or pan 33 formed of metal and an inner panel 34 preferably formed of an integral piece of relatively rigid nonmetallic heat-insulating material, The

outer pan 33 and inner panel 34 are fastened together by screws (not shown) and a hollow rubber gasket 35 is clamped between the outer pan and inner panel in such a. position that it seals against the outer surface of flange 22 on the outer shell l8. While the inner door panel may be formed in other ways and from other materials, it is an important feature of my invention that portions 36 facing the breaker strips 23 are formed of heat-insulating material and substantially follow the contour of the breaker strips 23, to provide a long, narrow air gap therebetween, thus reducing the heat leakage. Furthermore, by bulging the center of the inner door panel 34 toward the outer door pan 33, additional rigidity is imparted to the door panel and space is provided for extending shelves 28 toward the front without increasing the external dimensions of the refrigerator cabinet and without deleteriously aifecting the heat leakage characteristics of the cabinet. For example, in a cabinet having approximately 7 cubic feet capacity, .5. cubic feet capacity was added by my invention without afleoting the heat leakage characteristics or increasing the external dimensions of the cabinet. Furthermore, the inner door pan is a single concave panel of good appearance which is very desirable from the standpoint of molding a plastic material The shelves are extended out toward the user, thus improving the accessibility of the foodstuffs.

While I have shown my invention in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the In refrigerating cabinet construction comprising inner and outer shells having concentric openings in the front of the cabinet to provide access to a food storage compartment deflned by said inner shell, said inner shell having side, top, and bottom walls, the edges of two adjacent walls of said shells having flanges lying substantially parallel to the front of the cabinet and extending towards one another, the combination of a thin breaker strip bridging the space between said flanges, said breaker strip extending obliquely forwardly from the flange of the outer shell to form a peak in front of the flange of the inner shell, said breaker strip also having a flat surface adjacent said peak which flat surface lies substantially in the plane of the wall of the inner shell to which said breaker strip is adjacent, said breaker strip also having a. groove adjacent said flat surface which groove engages said flange on the inner shell, said groove being formed by the breaker strip continuing along one side of the flange on the inner shell, then around the edge thereof and along the other side of said flange, and spring means on said outer shell for biasing said breaker strip towards the flange of the inner shell.

ORLAND H. YOXSIMER. 

